Max Mosley refused to acknowledge the craven manner in which the FIA backed down from punishing Renault yesterday.

He insisted the team received “the harshest [penalty] we can impose”, which was patently false given that they kept all the points and money earned by their ill-gotten victory, and have not been banned from any events.

Over 71% of readers on this site (at the time of writing) have called Renault’s penalty ‘too soft’ and this morning’s newspapers reflect that mood with a string of articles condemning the FIA:

Max Mosley: “The penalty that we’ve imposed is the harshest one we can impose, which is disqualification, complete exclusion from the sport. However, because Renault have demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place – even the Renault F1 team didn’t have, still less does the company have any responsibility at all – it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty.”

"F1 clearly believes it needs Renault, even while its name represents the absolute nadir of the sporting instinct, far more than the kudos that might come with the idea that after all the years of drift – of Schumacher's ruthless, unpunished cynicism, the refusal to penalise the McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso when they benefited from the McLaren team's proven spying – they had finally seen the public relations value of cleaning up their house."

"Today in Paris we witnessed not the administration of a proper and fitting punishment of Renault for the shocking way in which it required Nelson Piquet Jr to crash on purpose at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, but an exercise in commercial pragmatism."

Damon Hill: "You can't escape from the suspicion that it was all very expedient, given that Briatore was also one of the ringleaders of the pressure group FOTA. No one can excuse what happened to Piquet, it's totally abhorrent. That has been dealt with. [But] it's not the whole story. The whole story is that there has been a power struggle for a very long time and it's got to stop because it's ruining the sport. It's absolutely deplorable."

"For the Italian who dreamt of one day succeeding Ecclestone, this completes a spectacular fall from grace. He will no longer retain a role in the management of the GP2 Series, the Formula One feeder championship, and will not be able to continue managing racing drivers, among them four on the present Formula One grid — Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and Romain Grosjean."

"Mosley's design for the future, it seems, is a paddock in which his associates are embedded alongside Ecclestone's long-established cadre of former Brabham mechanics – such as Charlie Whiting, Formula One's permanent race director, who was allegedly told the details of Nelson Piquet Jr's staged crash soon after the race at Singapore by the driver's father but felt unable to take action."

Bernard Rey: “Today, we fully accept the decision of the Council. We apologize unreservedly to the F1 community in relation to this unacceptable behaviour. We sincerely hope that we can soon put this matter behind us and focus constructively on the future. We will issue further information in the next few days."

WMSC has issued the hardest penalty we’ve seen in many years, to the man responsible of all this. They have condemned Flavio to ostracism.

They have condemned Pat Symonds to be out of F1 for 5 years, that means he will probably be out of this sport forever.

The only thing I donÂ´t like at all, is Nelson Piquet Jr who has been offered immunity. He cannot be seen as a victim, he took an important role in this mess and he has brought to this to light only when he has been fired, as a revenge.

Some people is asking for more to Renault.

Well, all I can say is Renault has behaved impeccably and I wouldn’t have liked to see Reanult paying 100 m$ for saving Flavio’s head.

MP4, The FIA have acted in the best interests of the sport, and Renault have cooperated completely, what else would you want to do. The biggest traversty is the Piquet familys immunity, which I would agree is ludicrous, Nelson jr should be banned from motorsport for life.

What about Flavio? Shouldn’t he go bankrupt? I’m not asking for Renault blood, but wouldn’t mind Flav’s. As for Piquet’s, they are truly shameless father son duo. Their immunity was a farce. I wouldn’t want to see Piquet Jr Jr Jr Jr…… involved in the sport. That name must be banned from competing in motor sports. This talentless guy brought the entire sport into dispute. I dunno why people keep forgetting PK. At the end of the day it was his right foot that did the damage.

What about Flavio? Shouldnât he go bankrupt? Iâm not asking for Renault blood, but wouldnât mind Flavâs.

I think you might be taking this to something of an extreme by calling for Briatore’s blood.

Flavio has been banned from any future involvement in FIA sanctioned motorsport for the rest of his life. His role in this affair has cost him his job at Renault, but may well also cost him his lucrative driver management business and prevents his involvement in other forms of motorsport – including GP2, in which he has a business interest. The WMSC’s findings look like they’ll also spark an FA hearing into whether Briatore is suitable to be a director of QPR football club, so that’s on the line too.

I’m sure Flavio won’t starve, but the WMSC ruling will have a significant impact on his wealth and future career. From a body that isn’t a civil court, let alone a criminal one, that’s about as harsh a penalty as it gets.

FFS, man, what would you have? Shall we cut off Briatore’s hand at the wrist? Cut out his tongue so he cannot lie again?

He may indeed go bankrupt. No racing series which wishes to be associated with FiA can have anything to do with him. This includes the GP2 series. No driver who wants to hold a superlicense can have him as a manager.

Also, he may be required by the football league to give up his interest in the QPR. How much do you think someone will pay for his shares in QPR, seeing it would be a buyer’s market if the league kicks him out? I’d bet even his good buddy Bernie wouldn’t give him more than a penny on the dollar.

And yet you keep screaming for a financial penalty against him. Is this not financial penalty enough?

he will simply retire, Briatore has plenty of money. He will buy himself into deals and businesses and there is a high chance that he will retain lot of the businesses that he already has. Briatore will lose the popularity which is more important then money.

Having said that, im “sure” that if he feels that his life was ruined unfairly. He, like many people, could do anything to anyone to absolute extreme level with money. So in my eyes the Piquets or even Mosley are not safe yet. Italians are well known, not to sit around if you have done something to them that they do not deserve.

Who knows, even though it extremely unlikely, there “still” exists a possibility that this was all Piquets idea indeed.

Piqeut jr is done in the sport. Briatore will never come to the US to try his games. If he did and was even suspected he would find that the racing fraternity in the US wouldnt have special investigations(especially in nascar) one of the team mechanics would just come over and beat him half way to hell and tell him to leave and never come back or they would finish the job proper. If you notice we dont do things prim and proper all the time. Sometimes we just lynch a cheat.
The boys in nascar would never accept him and he wouldnt want to be there as it isnt glamorous enough and the Indycar group..well they need all the hel[ they can get, but he isnt what they want either.

As for Piquetâs, they are truly shameless father son duo. Their immunity was a farce. I wouldnât want to see Piquet Jr Jr Jr JrâŚâŚ involved in the sport. That name must be banned from competing in motor sports. This talentless guy brought the entire sport into dispute. I dunno why people keep forgetting PK. At the end of the day it was his right foot that did the damage.

I think you’re being to harsh on Piquet. I do believe what the Piquet’s said. A young pilot like Nelsinho, who has been in Renault where he has been treated like total crap by an abusing manager could easily have a fragile state of mind, fragile enough to do what he did. In fact, I’m pretty sure most people (or a considerable amount of people) would do what Nelsinho did. And his father only came to try and defend his son.

FANTASTIC comment Martin….and you’re right on with it! Indeed Falv woulden’t be bothered with NASCAR, and if he ever showed up in the paddock we’d see Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, and Richard Childress kick him and those dorky little glasses of his out of there at the first opportunity!!!

The only thing I donÂ´t like at all, is Nelson Piquet Jr who has been offered immunity. He cannot be seen as a victim, he took an important role in this mess and he has brought to this to light only when he has been fired, as a revenge.

WasnÂ´t given to Junior the same immunity that was given to Alonso when he tried to blackmail Ron Dennis â âas a revengeâ â with the Ferrari data that he was discussing with De La Rosa? Or thereÂ´s something that we missing here?

As do I. I think that this was a fair punishment for those who actually perpetrated this act (apart from Piquet and his stupid immunity), and enough of a punishment for the remaining innocent people to let everyone know that this kind of thing will not be tolerated.

I think that if you calculated how much damage this has done to the Renault brand, the cost would be greater than just about any penalty the WMSC could have given.

I think that if you calculated how much damage this has done to the Renault brand, the cost would be greater than just about any penalty the WMSC could have given.

What about Flavio & Pat? Do you really think their punishment is just? They both are multi-millionaire’s. All that they have cared for all these years is to amass wealth. Even after this punishment, their wealth remains intact. The duo wouldn’t care less to enter the f1 paddock now. The FIA have failed to hurt them in the sweet spot. A hefty monetary penalty would just be about fine imo. I’m sincerely hoping for Renault * Piquet duo to file a case against Flavio. I wan’t to see him bankrupt. All his wealth must be distributed to the poor & needy. The fatso has lost all respect for money, he plays with it & i also hope that his various mistresses desert him forever. Such a disgraceful man.

Oh, I would love to see Briatore and Symonds fined or some other added penalty. The problem is that the WMSC has no jurisdiction over them anymore. They are no longer employed by an organization that works under FIA rules. All the WMSC could do is stop them from being a part of an organization like that.

Aside from no fine to the amount of money they gained from winning the race, I totally agree with you.

As for Piquet, he’s most likely finished anyway without a formal ban, so I personally have no qualms about his immunity. It’s morally reprehensible but at least it enabled us to get the other two guilty parties as well, and as I’ve said, probably won’t shield him from any actual damage to his career.

Its a strange sort of punishment for Renault – all they have to do is work with the FIA on safety (and I wonder who pays for that?). Briatore can no longer associate with FIA sanctioned sports, so does this mean he has to give up his stake in GP2 as well? And what about the strange statement about any drivers associated with him? Do they have to find new managers? Basically he can walk away and keep his money…..
Piquet Jr gets immunity for playing the innocent and Alonso ‘it wasn’t me guv’ gets a pat on the back. Pat Symonds seems to be the only one who has actually lost his job in all this. Is he the skapegoat?
As for the long term, have the FIA (aka Mad Max), deliberately not imposed an immediate ban knowing that Renault are going to leave F1 (as a team at least) at the end of the season? Since they haven’t had any large fines or denial of competing in FIA competitions, I imagine they are hoping to continue with GP2, World Series, Formula Renault and Clio events around the world, but we will have to wait for a statement on that I suppose.
All in all, it does show that vested interests rule the day, and us fans cannot expect to see any justice given fairly when the rule makers themselves seem to be tied in with the outcome of the judgements. Thats my opinion anyway.
Oh, and Keith has mentioned other possible wrongdoings by teams in the past. So can we believe anything that happens on the track this year and in the future? How can anybody be expected to police everything that happens in a race? Will there have to be FIA ‘investigations’ into anything that brings out the Safety Car from now on?
I’m normally happy to put what happens during a race down to fate, luck, skill and experience, but now, is the whole thing just a big fix as the critics have been saying all along?

I would assume in each case their contracts with Briatore included an opt-out clause, where if one party was not capable of fulfilling the terms then the contract was null and void. Being banned by the FIA would classify as one of those terms, methinks. So now they will scramble for new agents.

But the problem here is that the boy who peed on the lemonade went uncanned! The boy’s papa accompanies him on every school picnic. The boy tells the headmaster that it was his teacher who instructed him to pee on that lemonade, the teacher is later fired, but the boy remains with the school! is that justice?

I know you are a Piquet hater, but if the headmaster is your manager AND your team boss AND you’re trying to preserve your seat for next year AND you’re in a high stakes sport where cheating is common place, albeit this case is rare as far as we know, I can empathize with his position. It sure is easy for us to criticize from the insulated world of the blathersphere .

One does not cane the entire class for one boy peeing in the lemonade at the school picnic.
Some foks donât seem to understand this concept.

I understand the concept that if the entire class paid one kid to pee in the lemonade, they should all get suspended. Renault was the employer. They are liable for whatever dastardly acts their employees get up to. Some folks don’t seem to understand this concept you see…

One does not cane the entire class for one boy peeing in the lemonade at the school picnic.
Some foks donât seem to understand this concept.

I perfectly understand the concept that if the entire class paid one kid to pee in the lemonade, the whole lot should be suspended. Renault was the employer. They are liable for whatever dastardly acts their employees get up to. Some folks don’t understand this concept you see.

Whether or not you think it’s fair, it definitely makes McLaren’s $100m fine look horribly unfair. What they did wasn’t dangerous, and it was limited to a few people, yet the whole team still got a massive fine.

You didn’t seem to read my post thoroughly.
This has nothing to do with me or kovy or McLaren fans . Do you honestly think Flav & Pat would dare to come back to the paddock after handing in their resignation? Secondly, tell me how have Flav & Pat suffered by this verdict? They have made âHay when the sun shone brightlyâ. I definitely donât want Renault to go through what mclaren went through, cuz it would definitely drive them to bankruptcy. BUT I would be glad to see Flavio & Pat poorer by a Million or two. Hope you got my point.

But, as the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right. If McLaren’s penalty for “Spygate” was too extreme (and it was breathtakingly severe) it wouldn’t be fair to hit Renault with the same penalty simply to be consistent.

I must say I think you’re over-egging the pudding here. It’s just F1; in the grand scheme of things it does not matter. The true perpetrators have been, deservedly, heavily punished (yeah, except Piquet; though his reputation is shot which is punishment enough really). Renault are to some extent victims here and have been given a fair and reasonable “punishment”. One thing that does matter – the livelihood of ~500 innocent staff at Renault F1 – can continue, as it should. But frankly ranting on about principles of this and that is going OTT – it’s just F1! Lets just put this behind us and enjoy the racing…

Typical politician completely ignoring the facts and just saying what suits his agenda. No matter what your view is on whether the punishment is fair, I personally think it is too soft, surely no one can seriously claim it is the harshest penalty for the simple fact that we have seen harsher penalties in recent years.

Yes Briatore, the main target for Mosley, was banned from having anything to do with motorsport ever again, which was the harshest penalty the FIA could give him, but the Renault penalty was not the harshest penalty available.

In recent years we have seen BAR receive a two race ban for having an underweight car, McLaren given a record $100m fine and excluded from the championship for spying, McLaren disqualified from a race for lying and Renault were initially going to be banned for a race for an unsafe release of Alonso at a pitstop.

We will miss the colorful personality of Flavio. Flavio and Ron are gone now, and the sport is much less authentic without them.
Piquet Jnr. and Sr, wont be missed however.
Piquet Sr. looks like a witch doctor. Hes gotta take his voodoo show someplace else.

Piquet Snr hass immunity within FIA inquests not in a court of law, I would bet otherwise, it’s irrelevant what Flavio has done, the fact remains the Nelson Piquet evidentally did try to Blackmail Flavio, so I hope they destroy each other in court.

I have been thinking about the results of this verdict and it has repercussions in a different direction. Not only has max and bernie destroyed ron and flavio in the last year, but now they have cut the feet out from under fota, especially by banning flavio. One of fota tennants was they could use the fia’s officials to hlp run their series. Well not now be cause they have stated that they will no longer have any dealing with flavio in any way shape or form.So they have removed flavio from being involved essentially in fota.
So now flavio cannot represent drivers who want a superliscence, he cannot be involved with anyteam or liscenceholder that wants to remain in the f1 fraternity and by this last move he cant be involved in fota or the promotions of the series if it was to break away if they want fia assistance. This would mean that fota would have to come up with that infrastructure.
As much as dislike what max and bernie have done to my beloved f1, this was a brilliant move. They have had a full year to plan and execute this and they used flavio emotions to put the scene in motion. Bernie new flavio was a hothead and coorced him into firing npj because he new what would happen next as they had known about it since last year at Brazil.
The hamilton expulsion and getting ron out of the way was sheer luck earlier this year.

This is brilliant, pure brilliance..nobody saw this coming until it was too late. I tip my hat to them, they played all of us.

I think that people are wrong in comparing McLaren fine to this one. McLaren had their chance to come clean in their matter and in their first hearing they admitted they had full Ferrari blueprints but haven’t used them. WMSC accepted that explanation and gave them NO FINE at all.

To this situation it would be comparable if Renault tried to cover up this situation, lie to WMSC (instead of admitting guilt right away) and then after the evidence came through claimed innocence and honesty after being caught in the lie. It was after this kind of behavior that they were fined.

Also, Renault paid some kind of fine but they did it ”under the table” and FIA calls it ”Renault accepts the offer of a significant contribution to the FIA’s safety work.” I wonder what amount goes as ”significant contribution” and was the amount also suggested to Renault.

I definitely agree with the decision of Mosley, a 2 year suspension I think is fair enough. I could not imagine how Flavio would do this kind of cheating again( as I believed that he’d done this before at the Brazilian grandprix where Alonzo and Schumacher is fighting for the title). I feel sorry for Romain who had been doing an excellent job since filling up the seat of Nelson. I hope this kind of dirty tactics would never happen again in F1.

I totally agree with Mr Mosley, for the first time in my life. I’d even say the penalty has been too harsh, especially for Flavio Briatore.

As Eddie Irvine said recently, people tend to forget that this sort of behaviour is far from new in F1. Anyone remember Senna vs Prost? Schumacher vs Hill? Schumacher vs Villeneuve? Or Belgium ’98, when Coulthard knocked Schumacher out? That was far more dangerous than what Piquet did. And how was McLaren punished for the Melbourne scandal? Much softer, even though they were cheating and behaving in similarly arrogant way.

F1 is fame and money. In this competition the end justifies the means, and we must get used to it. If they are not smart enough to cover the means, punish them, but what’s the big deal? And punish the ones that actually did the ‘crime’ – it wasn’t Briatore that crashed into the wall, it was Piquet; it wasn’t Ron Dennis who lied, it was Hamilton.

I wonder what exactly is the “FIA’s safety work”. What I would have liked to see as part of the condition for the suspension of the ban would have been something along the lines of a Renault-funded, world-wide education campaign aimed at young drivers in racing schools to promote responsibility, fair-play, and driving safety.